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I tend to do my fine-detail circuit work inside the house on my electronics workbench, and rougher work in my garage workshop. I have vises installed in both places, each chosen to suit the work: in the house I use a PanaVise Jr. Mini-Vise mounted on a tray base; in the garage it’s a heftier swivel vise bolted to my workbench. Now, PanaVise has turned things upside down by offering this new Vise Buddy Jr., which is a small, precision vise head that you can quickly clamp into your bigger bench vise.

The Vise Buddy Jr.’s threaded jaws are attached with an adjustable ball joint to a square rule base, so you can tilt, turn, and rotate your work, while the whole vise stays put. The plastic, grooved jaws hold circuit boards very nicely, as well as most any small object for carving, drilling, sanding, soldering, or whatever else it is you need to do.

I’ve been using my Mini-Vise on my electronics workbench almost daily for many years, so I can attest to its high quality and functionality (and former frustration when turning its small nob, which has been remedied by the Speed Control Handle). I’m thrilled to now have the Vise Buddy Jr., a very similar vise I can pull off of the pegboard, clamp into my larger vise, do some work, and then put away, without eating up any permanent space on my garage workbench.

John Edgar Park likes to make things and tell people about it. He works in CG animation at DisneyToon Studios and writes for Make, Boing Boing, and other places online and in print. You can find him at jpixl.net and twitter @johnedgarpark — if you like that sort of thing.